Any Ford service techs out there? '05 Focus

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I'm having a sporatic issue with my '05 Ford Focus and I'm not sure if it involves the fuel system or the ignition system. Every morning the car starts just fine. I drive it to work and leave it sit for 9 hours and sometimes, not everytime, when I turn the key the engine just cranks and does not fire. I crank for 5-10 seconds and stop, then crank again and usually fires up but spits and sputters like it's not getting enough fuel until I just touch the gas pedal then it runs fine. I've noticed this is more frequent when the temp is above 65° but still doesn't do it every time. I have noticed rare occasions that while driving along the engine will "miss" and you lose power momentarily and then it fires again and along you go. This happened to me last night and I have noticed it in the past on occasion.

Engine is the 2.2L with DOHC and 5 speed transmission.

I realize that because this is not occurring regularly that there is no way to really find the cause, but I just thought I'd throw it out there and see if anyone has run across this problem before. The car always starts in the end but I do get a little nervous that one of these days I'm going to be stuck somewhere because it doesn't start.

There are no check engine lights coming on when this happens and the car has 110,000 miles on it.

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That's what I was kind of thinking Jerry. The problem is that if this car is anything like the older Escort I used to have the filter is on the end of the fuel pump in the tank. To replace the filter it would cost you a fuel pump. If this is the problem I hope I can change the pump by lifting up the back seat like I could with the Escort.

I'm not a tech either, but it sounds like it could be an electric fuel pump that's at the end of its life. My co-worker's wife's Focus of slightly newer vintage had a fuel pump replaced with half the miles as yours.

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I've had the car since 50k miles and have not seen the check engine light come on ever. Is it possible to have codes without the light coming on? I called the dealership service dept and when I told him no light on he told me that unless it acted up at the dealership he wouldn't be able to do much with it.

i dont think if it is a fuel pump bc they dont ussually start when there not giving enough fuel pressure. you could have a sensor starting to go bad but not enough to turn the light on yet. my car needs the camshaft sensor because its acting somethen like yours. but idk im not a ford expert hope everything works out for ya

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After doing some "google-ing" about the subject it appears the fuel pump appears to be a weak point at the 100k mark which is where I'm at. It also appears that the tank needs to be dropped to replace the fuel pump . On my '90 Escort there was a removable panel under the back seat for just this repair, but it seems that was making life too easy for the engineers at Ford. Everything I've read says there is not magic panel and people are actually cutting a hole under the back seat to repair fuel pumps so they don't have to drop the tank.

First, can an engine set a code without the check engine light coming on; yes, or it may have flashed on when you were doing some driving that required eyes on the road, and went back off before you noticed it.

The first problem you described, no start until you open the throttle could be a leaky fuel injector flooding the engine while it sits, this could also cause a stumble while cruising along. Run a heavy dose of a quality injector cleaner through it.

A throttle position sensor could cause the stumble as well, but not much in the no start issue.

A bad manifold air temp or manifold air pressure sensor could cause either issue as well, and there is a good chance that neither of those would set a C.E.L. as the computer was just reacting to what it thought was a normal ambient or driving condition change, thus no code either, if reading the data from all the sensors as they send it out, a decent scan tool will probably pick out a descrepancy from the conditions you know to be true and point you in the right direction to fixing the problem.

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I had a car that wouldn't start unless you gave it gas and it turned out to be the idle control valve was faulty so it wouldn't set the idle right when starting. Also, if you suspect the fuel pump, before pulling the tank, try to find a place that rents tools and check the fuel rail pressure. There is a gauge that will hook up to the fuel rail and when you cycle the pump it tells you the pressure, then you start the car and see if it drops or if it is just already low. If it drops drastically it usually means a plugged filter (if you have one; many cars don't have a filter, just a screen on the pump) or a pump that is getting weak. The specs vary for each car but the newer fuel injection systems usually need at least 45 to 50 psi to fire the injectors and usually run around 60 psi just to give you a benchmark to look for. I would also agree with the injector cleaner; it certainly couldn't hurt.